System and methods for secure collaborative communication

ABSTRACT

The invention generally relates to a tool for secure sharing and collaborative editing of content over a communication network. The invention provides systems and methods for dividing content into component parts of content data and/or editing parameters which may be individually attributed to their respective authors. Systems and methods of the invention relate to compiling content from these components for display or other output on a computing device. Content authors may retain ownership rights and privacy control over their individual contributions to collaborative content through selection of privacy parameters and distribution of volatile copies of content designed with optional copying, transferring, and/or viewing restrictions at an individual component level. By minimizing the number and size of data transfers necessary in the collaborative creation of content, systems and methods of the invention can also minimize security risks, data loss, and costs associated with data transfer over a network.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to, and the benefit of, both U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/023,444, filed Jul. 11, 2014,and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/107,440, filed Jan.25, 2015, the contents of each of which are incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention generally relates to a tool for secure, collaborativecommunication across a network.

BACKGROUND

Computers and mobile devices are ubiquitous today. These devices areoften equipped with network connectivity, digital cameras, microphones,and other means of capturing, creating, and sharing digital media andcontent. The ease with which people can create and share content cancreate several problems. People often create and share personal andprivate content. They may select a few, close individuals to share thiscontent with but once the content is in the digital universe, they havelost control of it. This can lead to content which an author intended tobe private being widely dispersed and viewed in contexts which theauthor did not anticipate or prepare for. Unanticipated distribution ofprivate content can have negative effects on an individual's personaland professional life with important and costly ramifications.

Content sharing and distributed collaboration is also used in theprofessional world where security concerns may be an even higherpriority. The unintentional loss of private data in these environmentscan enable corporate espionage, lead to the loss of intellectualproperty, the unwanted dissemination of information which might damage acompany's public image, and other serious problems. Unwanteddissemination can occur through loss of privacy control as describedabove, or through theft of data.

Despite existing security methods, each time data is transferred, it isat risk of being intercepted and deciphered by unintended parties andcurrent distributed collaboration methodologies often require therepeated transfer of content back and forth between collaborators. Thisrepeated transfer not only carries an increased risk of data theft buttakes up large amounts of bandwidth, especially with hi-definition videoand other complex forms of digital media. Additionally, content maybecome degraded after the repeated compression, encryption, decryption,and decompression involved in distributed collaboration using currenttechnologies. Furthermore, transfers between the mobile devices wheremuch of this content is created, edited, and shared, can quickly lead tovery costly data charges for the collaborators.

Another problem with current distributed collaboration methodologies isthe division of authorship and ownership rights for individualcontributions to collaboratively created content. An original author maycreate content but someone else may significantly modify and extend thecontent in a collaborative environment. Dividing ownership and controlis difficult and the problem intensifies as more and more authorscollaborate on a single piece of content. If all authors individuallycontrol the whole content, then individual authors lose control ofprivacy and distribution. If control is retained jointly, then a singleauthor can effectively end collaboration and hold up distribution ofother authors' contributions. These problems can lead to disagreementsamong collaborators, theft of ideas, inequitable distribution ofprofits, and potentially valuable content never being shared with thepublic.

SUMMARY

The present invention provides an application that divides a singleelectronic file or piece of content into constituent components withseparate ownership and control of those components resting with theirindividual authors. The invention has multiple uses in collaborativefile creation where multiple authors contribute to a single piece ofcontent. For example, a first author may create a spreadsheet and shareit with a second author who adds additional data to the spreadsheet.Ownership of the spreadsheet is divided among the first and second ownerbased on their contribution. Accordingly, each author would be able,using systems and methods of the invention, to control privacy andsharing for their individual contribution. The first author could sharethe spreadsheet with a third party but the third party would not be ableto see the second author's additional data unless the second authorpermitted the third party to. An additional benefit of the division of apiece of content into constituent components is efficient data transferin collaborative creation of content. Applications of the invention areconfigured to compile components into a final piece of content.Accordingly, in collaborative situations, where multiple parties areexchanging edits to a piece of content, instead of having to transferthe most recent version of the content back and forth between authors,only information regarding the most recent edit needs to be sent andapplications of the invention can synthesize the edited content from theprevious version. Systems and methods of the invention can therefore beused to minimize data transfers, saving both time and money incollaborations.

The invention generally relates to systems and methods for contentsharing and collaboration over a network by dividing content intocomponents including content data and editing parameters where ownershipand privacy rights for each component are retained by the individualauthor(s) of each component. Systems and methods of the inventioninclude computing devices operable to receive the content components(i.e., content data and editing parameters), and output edited contentto an appropriate output device (e.g., a display or speakers). Eachcomponent may be assigned a content identifier (e.g., by an author, acomputing device, or a server) which can act as a place holder for theactual content, which may be retrieved from a server by a computingdevice and can be combined with editing parameters and/or other contentto synthesize and output the collaborative or edited content. Computingdevices according to systems and methods of the invention may alsotolerate missing data and may still compile edited content for outputbased on the content data and editing parameters available to it (e.g.,where permission for one or more components are withheld by theirrespective authors).

The invention, through dividing content into components, allows forindividualized security and privacy controls and avoids the division ofownership and privacy issues associated with distributed collaborationaccording to current techniques.

By isolating content and editing parameter components, each iteration ofthe collaborative content can be recalled easily as each additional editexists as a separate parameter and does not affect the original contentwhich can still be retained on and retrieved from a server. Furthermore,the additional content or editing parameters at each stage of thecollaboration may be recalled and used by a computing device of theinvention in order to synthesize the edited content as it existed duringthat iteration. Content may include, among other things, captured stillimages, captured audio, captured video, text, or various types ofgraphics.

In certain embodiments, systems and methods of the invention relate tostoring content on a server and referencing the content by a contentidentifier. Servers according to the invention can refer to a tangible,non-transitory memory coupled to a processor and may be coupled to acommunication network, or may include, for example, Amazon Web Services,cloud storage, or other computer-readable storage. According to thesystems and methods of the invention, edited content may be shared amongcollaborators by sending a string of content identifiers and editingparameters directly between the collaborators on their computingdevices. Computing devices according to systems and method of theinvention may retrieve the content associated with each contentidentifier (with permission from each respective content author) andcombine them with the editing parameters in order to output the editedcontent. Accordingly, in certain embodiments, each collaborator onlyneeds to download a piece of content data one time. Subsequently, thecollaborators may only need to send separate editing parameters back andforth directly as they create a collaborative product. The methods andsystems of the invention thus require fewer data transfers which, inturn, are of a smaller size. This saves bandwidth and avoids the highcosts associated with large data transfers as mentioned earlier. Incertain embodiments, a server can tailor content downloads to the devicecharacteristics of the requestor's computing device (e.g., sending alower resolution image to a computing device with a lower resolutiondisplay as opposed to sending a larger file which is paired down at thereceiving end before being displayed), thereby saving bandwidth.

In certain embodiments, data transfers between collaborators may notrequire encryption as they may consist of content identifiers, whereinretrieval of the actual content data can be policed by the server, andediting parameters which, without the context of the content data, maynot pose a security risk. Accordingly, systems and methods of theinvention may allow for a fewer number of compressions and encryptionsand therefore minimize the associated potential for content degradation.Furthermore, by minimizing the number of transfers of private or securecontent through the use of content identifiers, the potential for datatheft is minimized.

According to systems and methods of the invention, privacy parametersmay be used which allow an author to choose to make content public orprivate and, if private, grant viewing and/or editing permissions toindividual viewers or populations or viewers. A privacy parameter may bea set of permissions which allow select individuals or groups ofindividuals to download the content (or a volatile copy of the content)from the server. A privacy parameter can be a population characteristicsuch as age, gender, etc. allowing only people within the selectsettings (e.g., males between 20 and 25 years old) to access the contentfrom the server. In certain embodiments, a privacy parameter may includebiometric and other sensory information. The privacy parameter can beentered into a computing device by the author and can be sent from thecomputing device to the server along with the associated content throughthe communication network. A content identifier can be openlytransferred to any user by any other user through computing devices overa communication network. This is because actual distribution of thecontent is controlled at the server level. In order for a user(requestor) to view content after receiving an identifier, therequestor's computing device attempts to retrieve the referenced contentfrom the server by sending the identifier along with the usercredentials for the requestor. User credentials may include, forexample, a user name, password, electronic mail address, phone number,age, gender, interests, physical attributes, geographic location,education, nationality, biometric and other sensory information. Theserver may compare the requestor's user credentials with the privacyparameters in order to determine if the requestor has permission toaccess the content. If the requestor is within the privacy parameters,then the server may send the content or a volatile copy of the contentto the requestor's computing device. If the requestor is not within theprivacy parameters and does not have permission to receive the content,the server may take any of several steps, including, not sending thecontent to the requestor's computing device, sending a message to therequestor's computing device indicating the lack of permission, send anotification to the author's computing device regarding the request,send an inquiry to the author's computing device regarding whether ornot the author would like to permit the requestor to view the contentand/or whether the author would like to change the privacy parametersfor the content.

Content, according to the invention, may be shared publically orprivately, with or without security and/or privacy settings. In certainembodiments, copies of content may be downloaded from the server in avolatile format (e.g., that cannot be copied or forwarded or that maybecome unreadable after a certain amount of time after download, acertain number of viewings, a certain number of viewing time, or somecombination thereof). These volatility parameters may be set by theserver or may be selected by the content's author and input into acomputing device to be transferred to the server along with the content.Accordingly, the content can be distributed to the individuals of theauthor's choosing while the author retains distribution and privacycontrol of the content, thereby avoiding the aforementioned problemsassociated with unauthorized distribution of private content.

In certain cases, the content components may only be viewed by computingdevices of the invention or by a proprietary viewer/synthesizer computerprogram. In such cases, the security, privacy, and/or volatilityparameters may be applied by the server, by the computing device, or bythe viewer/synthesizer computer program.

An author may send content to a server from a computing device through acommunication network which may include, for example, a local areanetwork, a wide area network, the internet, a mobile telecommunicationsnetwork, or a combination thereof. A server of the invention, uponreceiving content from an author, may store the content in its memory oranother data storage device and may assign an identifier to the content.The server may also assign ownership rights for the content to theauthor or otherwise associate the content with the author. The servermay send the identifier to the author so that the author may share theidentifier with other individuals.

The identifier may be location based, referencing, for example, astorage location on a networked server from where the content may beretrieved, or content based in that it may reference the substance ofthe content, for example a file name or a portion of computer codespecific to the content, independent of storage location.

Methods and systems of the invention may be performed by a server or adistributed computing network or peer-to-peer file sharing networkcomprising a plurality of computing devices wherein the content,including components thereof, may be sent to, stored in, and/or sentfrom a plurality of computing devices. Content may be divided intoindividual components or subdivisions thereof which, in turn, may bereceived or downloaded from one or more separate computing devices incommunication with the requestor's computing device via a communicationsnetwork. Content subdivision information may be included within anidentifier. Data transfer speeds may be increased through simultaneousdownloads of content subdivisions by the requestor in cases where thebandwidth of the requestor is greater than that of a server comprisingcomputing device. Individual subdivisions of a single piece of contentmay be requested, sent, and received at separate times and fromdifferent sources.

The identifier can include information including data regarding divisionand assembly of the content or components thereof into subdivisions,security information, and/or tracking information such as possiblesources of subdivisions or computing devices from which a particularsubdivision may be requested and downloaded. In certain embodiments, theidentifier may include security information such as a cryptographic hashwhich may be used to authenticate each subdivision as it is received.

Content may be divided into components such as video, audio, images,gestural commands, sensory data, biometric information, and/or text toenable efficient data transfers of only the components that a requestorwishes or is authorized to observe. Each of the components may befurther divided to for efficient data transfers. In some instances, adivision may contain more than one type of content.

In certain embodiments, systems and methods of the invention may relateto search functions. Content may be searched based on informationcontained in the identifier, enabling more efficient searches and may becomponent based (e.g., text, image, video, or audio). Privacy parametersmay prevent a requestor from receiving results for components which areoutside of the requestor's observing permissions.

An editing parameter component can include a variety of adjustments tothe content ranging from changes to brightness levels of an image to theaddition of substantial additional content generated by an editor andadded to the original author's content. Editing parameters preferablyinclude an individual equivalent operation that can be distilled orsynthesized from a more complex series of editing events. For example,instead of recording and repeating the addition and/or deletion of eachcharacter in a textual annotation edit, a computing device according tosystems and methods of the invention to recreate edited content on aviewing computing device, the editing computing device may synthesize asingle editing parameter which bypasses all the intermediate steps andcan change a piece of original content to the final edited form of thecontent in a single step. Because editing parameters will often bemeaningless without the context of the original content, the editingparameters may be sent without security or encryption protocols. Asalluded to earlier, an unauthorized interception of a content identifierwill not enable the interceptor to access the content from the serverunless they have the requisite permission or fall within the privacyparameters.

As noted earlier, a piece of content may comprise two or more pieces ofcontent data and numerous editing parameters from multiple authors oreditors. Each component (e.g., content data or editing parameter) may betreated in the same manner as the original content (e.g., uploadingcontent to the server, assigning an identifier, and associating privacyparameters). In such instances the author of each content component canexclusively control the privacy parameters, volatility parameters, anddistribution of only their authored component. Each author or editorcontrols only the privacy parameters for the component of the contentwhich they created.

In certain aspects, the invention includes a system for sharing contentover a communication network. The system includes a server coupled tothe communication network and comprising a tangible, non-transitorymemory coupled to a processor. The server is operable to receive contentfrom an author through the communication network; receive a privacyparameter for the content from the author through the communicationnetwork; assign an identifier to the content; send the identifier to theauthor through the communication network; receive a request for thecontent, referenced by the identifier, from a requestor through thecommunication network; and send a copy of the content to the requestor.

In certain embodiments, the content may only be readable for apreselected amount of time. The server may receive the preselectedamount of time from the author. In various embodiments, the copy of thecontent may be only readable for a preselected number of views. Serversof the invention may receive the preselected number of views from theauthor. In certain embodiments, the copy of the content cannot be copiedor forwarded by the requestor.

In various embodiments, the server may be further operable to receive auser credential from the requester; compare the user credential to theprivacy parameter; and send the copy of the content to the requestoronly when the user credential match the privacy parameter. Servers ofthe invention may be further operable to receive an editing parameterassociated with the content; assign the editing parameter to theidentifier associated with the content; and send the editing parameterto the requestor with the copy of the content. Systems of the inventionmay include a server further operable to send a notification to theauthor, through the communication network, upon receiving the requestfor the content. In certain embodiments, the server may be furtheroperable to receive a content release instruction from the author,through the communication network. Content may be an image or a video.The content may be a document or an audio clip.

In certain aspects, the invention includes a system for sharing contentover a communication network. The system includes a computing devicecoupled to the communication network and comprising a tangible,non-transitory memory coupled to a processor. The computing device isoperable to receive a content identifier from a second computing devicethrough the communication network; receive an editing parameter from thesecond computing device through the communication network; send arequest for content associated with the content identifier to a serverthrough the communication network; send a user credential to the serverthrough the communication network; receive a copy of the content fromthe server through the communication network; and display the contentmodified by the editing parameter.

In certain embodiments, the computing device can be a mobile device, awearable computing device, or an augmented reality device. According tocertain embodiments, the computing device may be further operable toreceive the user credential from a user. In various embodiments, thecomputing device may be further operable to modify the content by theediting parameter. The copy of the content may be only readable for apreselected amount of time or may be only readable for a preselectednumber of views. In certain embodiments, the copy of the content is of aformat that cannot be copied or forwarded by the computing device. Invarious embodiments, the content may be an image, a video, a document oran audio clip.

In various aspects, the invention includes a system for sharing contentover a communication network. The system includes a computing devicecoupled to the communication network and comprising a tangible,non-transitory memory coupled to a processor. The computing device isoperable to send the content to a server through the communicationnetwork; receive a privacy parameter from a user; send the privacyparameter to the server through the communication network; receive acontent identifier from the server through the communication network;and send the content identifier to a second computing device through thecommunication network.

In certain embodiments, the computing system is further operable toreceive a content readability time value indicative of how long a copyof the content may be viewed by the second computing device and send thecontent readability time value to the server through the communicationnetwork. The computing device may be further operable to receive anotification from the server, through the communication network, uponthe server receiving a request for the content. In various embodiments,the computing device may be further operable to receive a contentrelease instruction from the author and send the content releaseinstruction to the server, through the communication network. Thecontent may be an image, a video, a document, or an audio clip. Invarious embodiments, the computing device may include a mobile device, awearable computing device, or an augmented reality device.

Systems of the invention may include a computing device further operableto receive editing instructions from a user and synthesize an editingparameter. The computing device may be further operable to send theediting parameter to the second computing device through thecommunication network. In certain embodiments, the computing device canbe further operable to send the editing parameter to the server throughthe communication network. Servers of the invention may comprise aplurality of computing devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows use of a computing device to generate new content.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary editing screen on a computing device.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary computing device displaying content modifiedby an editing parameter.

FIG. 4 illustrates a system for sharing content.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary privacy parameter selection screen on acomputing device display.

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary computing device displaying a volatilityparameter selection screen.

FIG. 7 gives a more detailed schematic of components that may appearwithin a system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention provides systems and methods for sharing and distributedediting of content over a communication network 517 using servers 511and/or computing devices. Systems and methods of the invention relate tousing separate content files and editing parameters in order to minimizethe size of data transfers during a collaborative or distributed editingprocess. Additionally, systems and methods of the invention may relateto author inputted privacy parameters for content and/or contentsecurity mechanisms including limiting content downloads from the server511 to volatile copies.

Content may include, for example, pre-existing, generated, or capturedstill images, audio, video, text, verbal annotations, vector graphics,or rastor graphics. Content may be generated or captured using an inputdevice (described later) on a mobile device or other computing device101. In preferred embodiments, content is a computer file capable ofbeing read by a computing device 101 or server 511 of the system. Avariety of known programs or applications may be used to generate orcapture content and content may be in a variety of known file typesincluding, for example, JPEG, GIF, MPEG, Quick Time File Format (QTFF),ASCII, UTF-8, MIME, .TXT, XML, HTML, PDF, Rich Text Format (RTF), andWordPerfect. FIG. 1 shows a computing device 101 being used to generatenew content by capturing a digital image.

Content, according to systems and methods of the invention may becomprised of one or more components which may include one or more piecesof content data created by one or more authors and/or one or moreediting parameters created by one or more editors or authors. Content oredited content, according to systems and methods of the invention may becompiled by a computing device 101 or viewer/synthesizer computerprogram from components (e.g., content data and editing parameters) andoutput via an appropriate output device (e.g., a display device orspeaker). Content may be public or private and these privacy parametersmay be selected by an author or editor to apply to their individualcomponent contribution to a piece of edited or collaborative content.

In certain embodiments, an author is an individual who sends content tothe server 511 through a communication network 517. Servers 511according to the invention can refer to a tangible, non-transitorymemory coupled to a processor and may be coupled to a communicationnetwork 517, or may include, for example, Amazon Web Services, cloudstorage, or other computer-readable storage. A communication network 517may include a local area network, a wide area network, or a mobiletelecommunications network. In an exemplary embodiment, an author mayupload or send content (e.g., a captured image in JPEG format) from acomputing device 101 (e.g., a mobile telephone) to a server. Thecomputing device 101 may utilize an application or a computer programconfigured to provide an interface through which the author may selectcontent and direct the sending, uploading, or sharing of the content tothe server. Content may be uploaded by an author with no privacyparameters (i.e., public content). In some embodiments, the author maycreate a privacy parameter associated with a piece of content and sendor upload that privacy parameter to the server 511 along with thecontent. A privacy parameter may be a selection of one or moreindividuals or users whom the author has authorized to receive thecontent. A privacy parameter may also be a set of criteria or populationcharacteristics which define a group that the author has authorized toreceive the content. Examples of criteria or population characteristicsinclude, for example, age, gender, interests, physical attributes,geographic location, education, or nationality. In various embodiments,a privacy parameter may include biometric and other sensory information.FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of computing device 101 of the systemwith a display 125 showing an exemplary privacy parameter selectionscreen. A privacy parameter may be linked to a particular piece ofcontent or may be applied to multiple pieces of content, including allcontent uploaded by a particular author. In the exemplary embodimentshown in FIG. 2, an author may toggle privacy parameters or permissionsfor individual users which may apply to all private content uploaded tothe server. According to certain systems and methods of the invention,content transferred between the server 511 and a computing device 101may be compressed and/or encrypted using a variety of methods known inthe art including, for example, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)specification and lossless or lossy data compression methods.

Upon receiving content from an author, the server 511 may assign anidentifier to the content and store the content in its memory. In someembodiments an author or a computing device 101 may assign an identifierto the content and upload the identifier to the server along with thereferenced content. In certain embodiments, the identifier is analphanumeric sequence which is randomly generated by the server. Anidentifier according to systems and methods of the invention may beunique for each piece of uploaded or received content. In someembodiments, an identifier may be assigned by a computing device 101before content is sent from the computing device 101 to the server. Inthese embodiments, the content associated identifier can be sent to theserver 511 along with the content. In certain embodiments, the server511 may also associate the author with the received content. Usercredentials associated with the author, including, for example, a username, electronic mail address, or phone number may be recorded andstored along with a particular piece of content received from theauthor. In certain embodiments, the server 511 may send the identifierto the author via the communication network 517.

In some embodiments, the identifier may be location based in that it mayreference a fixed location, for example, a storage location on networkedserver, where the corresponding content may be accessed and received. Insome embodiments, the identifier may be content based in that itreferences the substance of the content, independent of storagelocation, for example a file name or a portion of computer code specificto the content. In certain instances, identifiers may comprise a hash,such as a cryptographic hash which corresponds to the content orcomponents thereof including editing parameters. In some embodiments,the identifier may include permission information.

In certain embodiments, the server 511 may receive volatility parametersfrom the content author which, for example, relate to the viewing time,number of views, or lifespan of content data downloaded from the server.In some embodiments, content may only be downloaded from the server 511by requestors other than the author in a volatile format. In certainembodiments, content may be formatted so that it can only be compiledfrom components and/or viewed using a viewer/synthesizer program or on acomputing device 101 of the invention. In certain embodiments, privacyparameters and/or volatility parameters may be enforced by a server 511,a computing device 101, and/or a viewer/synthesizer program. Accordingto systems and methods of the invention, the computing device 101 and/orthe viewer/synthesizer program may, upon requesting and obtainingidentifier referenced content from the server, may receive and/or verifyany volatility parameters associated with the content. The computingdevice and/or the viewer synthesizer program may then enforce thoseparameters. In certain embodiments, the computing device and/or theviewer synthesizer program may have system write permission, and mayerase the content upon expiration of a volatility parameter. In someembodiments, the computing device and/or the viewer synthesizer programmay refuse to display the content upon expiration of a volatilityparameter. In certain embodiments, the computing device and/or theviewer synthesizer program can periodically review the status ofvolatile data and apply the restrictions or update the status.

In various embodiments, a downloaded copy of content may not be forexample, shared, transferred, or copied. Volatile copies of content mayhave a preset lifespan after which the file is expunged from thecomputing device 101 on which it is stored or corrupted and madeunreadable. In certain embodiments, volatile copies may allow only alimited number of views by the requester (decryption after downloading,may only be viewed for a limited amount of time, or may have somecombination of these limitations. For example, a volatile copy ofcontent may be downloaded by a requestor in a volatile format whichallows the requestor to view the content five times for thirty secondseach time. Number of view and/or time of view limitations, as describedabove, may be preset or may be selected for a piece of content or groupof content by an author. For example, an author may, upon uploadingcontent to the server, set one or more volatility parameters including apreselected amount of time for viewing or a preselected number of views.These volatility parameters may be applied, for example, on a contentbasis or on a requestor basis. For example, an author may set a singlevolatility parameter (e.g., a preselected number of views) for allrequestors for an individual piece or group of pieces of content, or mayset a single volatility parameter for all content sent to a particularrequestor or group of requestors. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplaryembodiment of a computing device 101 with a display 125 allowing a userto set volatility parameters.

An author may select to share content with one or more other users orindividuals based on privacy parameters as described above. In certainembodiments, an author can initiate the sharing of content by sendingthe identifier associated with the content to another user. Theidentifier may be sent from one computing device 101 to another throughthe communication network 517. An application or computer program on acomputing device 101 may prompt an author to enter instructionsregarding who the author wishes to share content with. The computingdevice 101 may then receive instructions and send the content associatedidentifier to each selected user or computing device. Alternatively, anauthor, when sending content to the server, may also send instructionsregarding users whom the author wishes to share the content with and theserver 511 may then send the content associated identifier to eachselected user.

In various embodiments, a user with whom content has been shared mayreceive an identifier which is associated with the content. Theidentifier may be received on a computing device 101 and may be sent byanother computing device 101 or a server. A requestor, or userrequesting content from the server, may send an identifier to the server511 through a computing device, over a communication network 517. Incertain embodiments, the server 511 may then access the contentassociated with the identifier and send a copy of the content, stored inthe server's memory, to the requestor. In certain embodiments, theserver 511 will send a volatile copy of the content to the requestor. Insome embodiments, the requestor may also send user credentials to theserver. Such user credentials may include, for example, a user name,password, electronic mail address, phone number, age, gender, interests,physical attributes, geographic location, education, nationality, orbiometric and other sensory information. User credentials may be linkedto a specific user, entered once into a computing device 101 and storedin the memory 307 of the computing device 101 to be sent to the server511 along with content or content requests. In certain embodimentssystems and methods of the invention may include the creation of anaccount in order to access and share content using the system. Creationof an account may include entering user credentials into a computingdevice 101 and can include creating a user name to associate with thecredentials. These user credentials can be uploaded through thecommunication network 517 to the server 511 and stored in the server'smemory. The server, upon receiving the user credentials and theidentifier from the requestor may compare the user credentials to anyprivacy parameter associated with the identified content. If therequestor falls within the privacy parameter, then the server 511 maysend the content or a volatile copy of the content to the requestor overthe communication network 517. In some embodiments, the server 511 maycompare the user credentials from the requestor to volatility parametersreceived from the author and send a volatile copy of the content to therequestor which matches the volatility parameters associated with theindividual content and/or the individual requestor. In certainembodiments, if the user credentials received from the requestor by theserver 511 are not within the privacy parameter associated with therequested content, the server 511 may send a notification, through thecommunication network 517 to the author indicating that a request forprivate content has been received and that the requestor is notcurrently permitted to receive the content. The notification may besent, for example, as an electronic mail, a text message, or through adedicated portal to a computing device 101 (e.g., an author's mobiletelephone) in communication with the server. The computing device,having received a notification may identify the requestor based on thereceived user credentials and/or prompt the author for permission torelease the content to the requestor. In various embodiments, the authormay send a one-off authorization to the server 511 instructing theserver 511 to release private content to a particular requestor. In someembodiments, an author may revise the privacy parameter associated withthe content on a computing device 101 and send, through thecommunication network 517, an updated privacy parameter associated witha particular piece or group of content to the server.

Systems and methods of the invention further relate to collaborative ordistributed editing of content. In some embodiments, systems and methodsof the invention relate to computing devices 101 (e.g., mobiletelephones, computers, tablets, augmented reality devices, or wearablecomputing devices 101) operable to combine a piece of content with anediting parameter of set of editing parameters to synthesize editedcontent for output on an output device (e.g., display) coupled to thecomputing device. In certain embodiments, an author may share contentwith a requestor using a server 511 and an identifier as describedabove.

Systems and methods of the invention may include computing devices 101operable to receive editing parameters from the user (editor) through aninput device (e.g., keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, or digital camera).Dedicated applications or programs running on the computing device 101may enable editing of content and record the edits in a separate editingparameter. FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a computingdevice 101 according to systems and methods of the invention andoperable to allow editing of content by an editor. The computing device101 is showing the content along with editing controls on a display 125.The exemplary computing device 101 in FIG. 4 may also receive a privacyparameter from the editor which may be associated with any additionalcontent or editing parameters created by the editor (as discussedbelow). The computing device 101 may then send the editing parameter,privacy parameter, and/or content identifier to another computing device101 or the server 511 through the communication network 517. Computingdevices 101 according to systems and methods of the invention maysynthesize an editing parameter from a series of editing steps inputinto the computing device 101 (e.g., brightness adjustments to an imageor track level adjustments to an audio recording) by calculating asingle adjustment that can be used to transform the original content tothe final edited product, replacing the series of editing steps. Anediting parameter may be any annotation, augmentation, overlay, or otherchange to a piece of content including, for example, audio annotation,text, vector graphics, rastor graphics, video, animation, gestures forwearable computing devices 101, instructions, code for two-dimensionalor three-dimensional environments, or a combination thereof. In certainembodiments, an editor may share their edits with another individual oruser, including the content's author, by directing a computing device101 to send a content associated identifier linked to the originalcontent, and a separate editing parameter to the other individual'scomputing device. The individual receiving the edited content canreceive the identifier and the edited content on a computing device 101operable to synthesize edited content from the two components.

FIG. 5 illustrates a computing device 101 according to systems andmethods of the invention which is displaying synthesized output on adisplay 125. The computing device 101 in FIG. 5 has combined a componentimage with a textual editing parameter to synthesize and display editedcontent (i.e., a picture of a motorcycle with a comment below). If thecontent is already stored in the memory 307 of the other individual'scomputing device, then the computing device 101 can synthesize theedited content for output by combining the received editing parameterand the content already stored on the computing device. If the user doesnot have the original content in the memory 307 of their computingdevice, the computing device 101 may be operable to request the contentfrom the server 511 through the communication network 517 via theidentifier as described above. In a distributed editing session, eachcollaborator need only receive the content from the server 511 oncewhich leads to less data being transferred, lower costs where chargesare based on the amount of data transferred (e.g., many mobile dataplans), and less encryption, compression, decompression, and decryption,which, in certain formats, can lead to data loss.

In certain embodiments, an editor may instruct a computing device 101 tosend edited content to another individual that is outside of the contentauthor's original privacy parameter. The computing device 101 may, asdescribed above, send the editing parameter as well as the contentidentifier to the other individual. The other individual upon receivingthe content identifier and the editing parameter may request the contentfrom the server 511 in the manners described above. If the otherindividual is a requestor whose user credentials are outside of thecontent author's privacy parameters, the server 511 may handle therequest as described above, including, for example, not sending thecontent to the requestor and/or sending a notification of the requestand the requestor's user credentials to the original author. In certainembodiments, editing parameters transferred between computing devices101 and/or servers 511 may be compressed and/or encrypted. In otherembodiments, editing parameters transferred between computing devices101 and/or servers 511 may be unencrypted. Because the editing parameteris isolated from the content, the editing parameter may not beunderstood outside of the context of the content and therefore may notrequire security measures such as encryption. This can further minimizethe necessity for encryption and compression and the associated problemstherein.

In some embodiments, the editing parameter may be additional contentwhich is created and/or shared as described above. The additionalcontent may be generated on a computing device 101 and augment originalcontent. In certain embodiments, when additional content is used to editoriginal content on a computing device, the computing device 101 maycreate an insertion parameter or instruction which can be used toinstruct another computing device 101 on how to combine the twocomponent pieces of content (original and additional) to synthesize theedited content. The insertion parameter is separate from the editingparameter and the content and may be transferred among computing devices101 and the server 511 in the same manners as described above forediting parameters. In certain embodiments, the computing device 101 mayreceive a privacy parameter from the author of the additional contentand send the additional content to the server 511 along with the privacyparameter. Additional content is content and may be sent, received, andprocessed by a server 511 or computing device 101 in the same manners asdescribed above for content. In embodiments wherein the editingparameter is additional content, the original content and additionalcontent may be combined by a computing device 101 in order to synthesizeand output an edited content. Accordingly, in various embodimentsaccording to systems and methods of the invention, authors of specificcontent may retain privacy control over their authored content even ifit is a component of a larger collaborative piece of edited content.Thus, privacy control of collaborative content is simplified.

In certain embodiments, an author, editor, and/or requestor may be ahuman or a machine such as a computing device. For example, an author ofcontent may be a networked device such as a heart rate monitor whereinthe content may be, for instance, an electronic record of anindividual's heart rate during a workout. A machine or a computingdevice may create content, share content, edit content and/or setprivacy parameters for content automatically, according to parametersset by a human, and/or some combination thereof.

In various embodiments, systems 501 and methods of the invention mayrelate to a communication network 517 which allows a server 511 coupledto a data storage device 527 to send and receive data to and from anynumber of computing devices 101 a, 101 b, . . . , 101 n. See FIG. 6. Theserver 511 of the system 501 may be operable to receive, for example,content, editing parameters, content identifiers, volatility parameters,content requests, user credentials, and/or privacy parameters from thecomputing devices 101 a, 101 b, . . . , 101 n through the communicationnetwork 517 and can store them in its internal memory 307 or in a datastorage device 527. The server 511 may be operable to send, for example,content, volatile content, content identifiers, editing parameters,notifications, and/or user credentials to the computing devices 101 a,101 b, . . . , 101 n through the communication network 517. Computingdevices 101 a, 101 b, . . . , 101 n according to systems and methods ofthe invention may be operable to send and receive content, volatilecontent, editing parameters, notifications, content identifiers,volatility parameters, content requests, user credentials, and/orprivacy parameters through the communication network 517 from the server511 and other computing devices 101 a, 101 b, . . . , 101 n.

In a preferred embodiment, computing devices 101 according to theinvention may provide a user, editor, or author, with an intuitivegraphical user interface (GUI). See FIGS. 2-5. FIG. 7 gives a moredetailed schematic of components that may appear within system 501.System 501 preferably includes at least one server computer system 511operable to communicate with at least one computing device 101 a, 101 bvia a communication network 517. Sever 511 may be provided with adatabase 385 (e.g., partially or wholly within memory 307, storage 527,both, or other) for storing records 399 including, for example, content,editing parameters, content identifiers, volatility parameters, usercredentials, and/or privacy parameters where useful for performing themethodologies described herein. Optionally, storage 527 may beassociated with system 501. A server 511 or computing device 101according to systems and methods of the invention generally includes atleast one processor 309 coupled to a memory 307 via a bus and input oroutput devices 305.

In certain embodiments, the role of the server within methods andsystems of the invention may be performed by a distributed computingnetwork or peer-to-peer file sharing network comprising a plurality ofcomputing devices wherein the content, including components thereof, maybe sent to, stored in, and/or sent from a plurality of computingdevices. In such embodiments, content may be divided into individualcomponents or subdivisions thereof which, in turn, may be received ordownloaded from one or more separate computing devices in communicationwith the requestor's computing device via a communications network.

Content may be subdivided arbitrarily, or according to a scheme. Anexample of one scheme includes file size based division wherein a pieceof content may be divided into a number of equally sized subdivisionswhere size is a measure of the amount of data (e.g., digitalinformation), including, for example, subdivisions of 500 bytes, 1kilobyte, 500 kilobytes, 1 megabyte, 10 megabytes, or 100 megabytes.Dividing the content and/or components thereof into subdivisions mayallow for quicker data transfers (e.g., sending or receiving content;downloads or uploads) and the ability to pause and resume data transferswhile retaining the already transferred subdivisions. Subdivisions maybe arbitrary or based on separate components of the content (e.g., textcomponent, audio component, video component, color information, privacyparameter, or editing parameter). In component based subdivisions, thesubdivisions may each be substantially the same size or of varyingsizes, for example to accommodate the size of each component.

In certain embodiments, content components and/or subdivisions thereofmay be transferred among computing devices via a communication network.Content subdivision information may be included within an identifier. Arequestor, having received a content identifier, may send a request to aplurality of computing devices acting as a server wherein eachsubdivision of the content (potentially subject to the privacyparameters described elsewhere) may be requested and received from anyavailable source computing device that has a copy of the requestedcontent subdivision available. The source computing devices may beselected based on a variety of factors including, for example,geographic proximity to the requestor, network access and speed, ornetwork cost (e.g., on the same local network as a requestor, avoidingpotential network or data transfer charges). Data transfer speeds may beincreased through simultaneous downloads of content subdivisions by therequestor in cases where the bandwidth of the requestor is greater thanthat of a server comprising computing device.

In certain instances, individual subdivisions of a single piece ofcontent may be requested, sent, and received at separate times and fromdifferent sources. In certain embodiments, the identifier may includeinformation including data regarding division and assembly of thecontent or components thereof into subdivisions, security information,and/or tracking information such as possible sources of subdivisions orcomputing devices from which a particular subdivision may be requestedand downloaded. In certain embodiments, the identifier may includesecurity information such as a cryptographic hash which may be used toauthenticate each subdivision as it is received.

In certain embodiments, content may be intelligently divided intocomponents to enable efficient data transfers. For example, a videocomponent may be compatible with several audio components in variouslanguages (e.g., French, English, Mandarin, or Spanish) and a requestorwishing to view the video in Spanish could request and download thevideo component along with only the Spanish audio component, withoutwasting bandwidth on the other audio components.

In certain embodiments, systems and methods of the invention may relateso search functions wherein a requestor may input a query via an inputdevice into a computing device which may review content, contentidentifiers, content components, or a catalog of any of the above inorder to find data which matches the query. The computing device of therequestor may obtain such information from a server or another computingdevice and can display results on an output device connected to therequestor's computing device. In some embodiments, content may besearched for based on the information contained in the identifierallowing for faster cataloging and searching through stored content. Forexample, where an identifier contains information regarding componentbased subdivisions such as color information, a potential requestor maysearch for blue content and, instead of relying on tagging of blueimages or a more complicated analysis of each file, a cursory searchthrough of identifiers could recognize all available content with bluecolor information. In such embodiments, bandwidth and processing powermay be utilized more efficiently.

In certain embodiments, privacy parameters may be applied to contentsearching so that content or components thereof, which a requestor doesnot have permission to observe, may optionally be restricted from thesearch so that a requestor is not shown such results and is furthermorenot informed of the existence of such results. When applied to contentcomponents with multiple privacy parameters, this may result in arequestor being able to search for, receive, and/or observe onecomponent of the content without being aware of the existence of anothercomponent of the content.

The viewer/synthesizer program may compile the content for viewing fromsubdivisions of content based on compiling information which may becontained, for example, in the identifier.

As one skilled in the art would recognize as necessary or best-suitedfor the systems and methods of the invention, systems and methods of theinvention include one or more servers 511 and/or computing devices 101that may include one or more of processor 309 (e.g., a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), etc.),computer-readable storage device 307 (e.g., main memory, static memory,etc.), or combinations thereof which communicate with each other via abus.

A processor 309 may include any suitable processor known in the art,such as the processor sold under the trademark XEON E7 by Intel (SantaClara, Calif.) or the processor sold under the trademark OPTERON 6200 byAMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

Memory 307 preferably includes at least one tangible, non-transitorymedium capable of storing: one or more sets of instructions executableto cause the system to perform functions described herein (e.g.,software embodying any methodology or function found herein); data(e.g., portions of the tangible medium newly re-arranged to representreal world physical objects of interest accessible as, for example, apicture of an object like a motorcycle); or both. While thecomputer-readable storage device can in an exemplary embodiment be asingle medium, the term “computer-readable storage device” should betaken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) thatstore the instructions or data. The term “computer-readable storagedevice” shall accordingly be taken to include, without limit,solid-state memories (e.g., subscriber identity module (SIM) card,secure digital card (SD card), micro SD card, or solid-state drive(SSD)), optical and magnetic media, hard drives, disk drives, and anyother tangible storage media.

Any suitable services can be used for storage 527 such as, for example,Amazon Web Services, memory 307 of server 511, cloud storage, anotherserver, or other computer-readable storage. Cloud storage may refer to adata storage scheme wherein data is stored in logical pools and thephysical storage may span across multiple servers and multiplelocations. Storage 527 may be owned and managed by a hosting company.Preferably, storage 527 is used to store records 399 as needed toperform and support operations described herein.

Input/output devices 305 according to the invention may include one ormore of a video display unit (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or acathode ray tube (CRT) monitor), an alphanumeric input device (e.g., akeyboard), a cursor control device (e.g., a mouse or trackpad), a diskdrive unit, a signal generation device (e.g., a speaker), a touchscreen,a button, an accelerometer, a microphone, a cellular radio frequencyantenna, a network interface device, which can be, for example, anetwork interface card (NIC), Wi-Fi card, or cellular modem, or anycombination thereof.

One of skill in the art will recognize that any suitable developmentenvironment or programming language may be employed to allow theoperability described herein for various systems and methods of theinvention. For example, systems and methods herein can be implementedusing Perl, Python, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, Ruby onRails, Groovy and Grails, or any other suitable tool. For a computingdevice 101, it may be preferred to use native xCode or Android Java.

As used herein, the word “or” means “and or or”, sometimes seen orreferred to as “and/or”, unless indicated otherwise.

Incorporation by Reference

References and citations to other documents, such as patents, patentapplications, patent publications, journals, books, papers, webcontents, have been made throughout this disclosure. All such documentsare hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for allpurposes.

Equivalents

Various modifications of the invention and many further embodimentsthereof, in addition to those shown and described herein, will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art from the full contents of thisdocument, including references to the scientific and patent literaturecited herein. The subject matter herein contains important information,exemplification and guidance that can be adapted to the practice of thisinvention in its various embodiments and equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for sharing content over a communicationnetwork, the system comprising: a server coupled to the communicationnetwork and comprising a tangible, non-transitory memory coupled to aprocessor, the server operable to: receive content from an authorthrough the communication network; receive a privacy parameter for thecontent from the author through the communication network; assign anidentifier to the content; send the identifier to the author through thecommunication network; receive a request for the content, referenced bythe identifier, from a requestor through the communication network; andsend a copy of the content to the requestor.
 2. The system of claim 1wherein the copy of the content is only readable for a preselectedamount of time.
 3. The system of claim 1 wherein the copy of the contentis only readable for a preselected number of views.
 4. The system ofclaim 1 wherein the copy of the content cannot be copied or forwarded bythe requestor.
 5. The system of claim 1 wherein the server is furtheroperable to: receive a user credential from the requester; compare theuser credential to the privacy parameter; and send the copy of thecontent to the requestor only when the user credential match the privacyparameter.
 6. The system of claim 1 wherein the server is furtheroperable to: receive an editing parameter associated with the content;assign the editing parameter to the identifier associated with thecontent; and send the editing parameter to the requestor with the copyof the content.
 7. The system of claim 1 wherein the server is furtheroperable to send a notification to the author, through the communicationnetwork, upon receiving the request for the content.
 8. The system ofclaim 7 wherein the server is further operable to receive a contentrelease instruction from the author, through the communication network.9. The system of claim 1 wherein the content is an image, a video, adocument, or an audio clip.
 10. A system for sharing content over acommunication network, the system comprising: a computing device coupledto the communication network and comprising a tangible, non-transitorymemory coupled to a processor, the computing device operable to: receivea content identifier from a second computing device through thecommunication network; receive an editing parameter from the secondcomputing device through the communication network; send a request forcontent associated with the content identifier to a server through thecommunication network; send a user credential to the server through thecommunication network; receive a copy of the content from the serverthrough the communication network; and display the content modified bythe editing parameter.
 11. The system of claim 10 wherein the computingdevice is a mobile device, a wearable computing device, or an augmentedreality device.
 12. The system of claim 10 wherein the computing deviceis further operable to receive the user credential from a user.
 13. Thesystem of claim 10 wherein the computing device is further operable tomodify the content using the editing parameter.
 14. The system of claim10 wherein the copy of the content is of a format that cannot be copiedor forwarded by the computing device.
 15. The system of claim 10 whereinthe content is an image, a video, a document, or an audio clip.
 16. Asystem for sharing content over a communication network, the systemcomprising: a computing device coupled to the communication network andcomprising a tangible, non-transitory memory coupled to a processor, thecomputing device operable to: send the content to a server through thecommunication network; receive a privacy parameter from a user; send theprivacy parameter to the server through the communication network;receive a content identifier from the server through the communicationnetwork; and send the content identifier to a second computing devicethrough the communication network.
 17. The system of claim 16 whereinthe computing system is further operable to: receive a contentreadability time value indicative of how long a copy of the content maybe viewed by the second computing device; and send the contentreadability time value to the server through the communication network.18. The system of claim 16 wherein the computing device is furtheroperable to receive a notification from the server, through thecommunication network, upon the server receiving a request for thecontent.
 19. The system of claim 16 wherein the computing device isfurther operable to receive a content release instruction from theauthor and send the content release instruction to the server, throughthe communication network.
 20. The system of claim 26 wherein thecomputing device is further operable to: receive editing instructionsfrom a user; and synthesize an editing parameter.
 21. The system ofclaim 20 wherein the computing device is further operable to send theediting parameter to the second computing device through thecommunication network.
 22. The system of claim 20 wherein the computingdevice is further operable to send the editing parameter to the serverthrough the communication network.